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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

Scoring and Slipping a JoinPrintable pottery guide

The whole join, in the order you make it: what a join really is, the nine moves, what to brush on and what does nothing, how to make slip from your own clay, and how to dry it so it is still shut when it comes out of the kiln.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 26 printable pages
  • 7 video picks
  • 8-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any printer
  • The lesson stays free
The printable, at a glance

What is the Scoring and Slipping a Join printable guide?

It is scoring and slipping on paper: why a join is a weld and not glue, the six things every join needs, the nine moves in order, what to brush into a join and what does nothing, how to make joining slip from your own clay, four kinds of join and the quirk of each, where joins are really lost, and eight ways a join fails with what caused each. Built to be printed, kept at the table and marked up as you go.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Scoring and Slipping a Join” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 26printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the handle that came off in the kiln

Most joins are decided long before the kiln

A handle comes off in the bisque and it feels like bad luck. It almost never is. The join was already failing on the drying shelf, and the firing only made it obvious.

Everything that decides it is small and easy to skip with wet hands: two pieces at the same wetness, scoring you can catch a fingernail in on both faces, slip from the same clay brushed down into the grooves, a bead squeezing out all the way around, and a seam blended until it is gone. Two of those, the slip and the blend, are the ones people skip most, because both look finished long before they are.

The guide puts the nine moves in the order you do them, with the numbers you need beside them: how deep to score, how thick the slip should be, how long to bag a piece. It ends with a page to log every join and how it came out.

Look inside

Real pages, for a table with a bucket of slip on it

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark.

  • Page 3 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the table, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good join looks like.
  • Page 5 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: what is actually happening, shown with the sample watermark
    What is actually happeningThe diagram page: a join in three stages, pressed, prepared and welded, with a six point key that says what each part of the drawing is doing.
  • Page 14 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongThe start of the eight ways a join fails, each with what caused it, and a video note on drying without cracks, so the next join starts from the cause rather than a guess.
  • Page 19 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: join log, shown with the sample watermark
    Join logA log to write in: how wet each piece was, what you did at the table, how it dried and how it came out. A few rows in, you can see which move to be fussier about.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Your hands are covered in slip

A join is made with both hands full of clay, and the moves come one after another. Paper suits that.

  • The moves are numbered

    Nine moves, in order, each with its reason. You can look up move four with a wet thumb and find it in a second.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you put it while you press and blend. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind slip.

  • A place to write the result

    A join is only proven once the piece is out of the kiln, so the log has a column for how it came out. The joins that held and the ones that opened tell you what to change.

  • One card for the table

    The join card has the moves, the numbers and what a break tells you on a single page. It pins up beside the table.

How this one is built

Rebuilt for paper, not printed from a web page

Every guide in the series is set from scratch for print. Here is what that meant for this one.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Seven notes in the free lesson described things the videos do not show. We checked each against the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, and rewrote them in the guide.

  • A repair claim that matches its label

    The lesson said a mender repair could survive a glaze firing. The product’s own page says to ask a staff member before firing anything repaired with it, so the guide says that too.

  • Written for any studio

    Where the free lesson says here or the studio, the guide says The Clay Hole, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is a Clay Hole habit and which is a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

  • A card for the table

    The join card is the whole job on one sheet: what to check before you join, what to do at the join, what to do after, and how to read a break.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Scoring and Slipping a Join” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A handle coming off in the kiln feels like bad luck. It almost never is.

It is a note from the clay about what happened at your table a few days earlier, and it is written on the two broken faces.

Practice on something you do not mind losing, and read every break you get.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
The series

Build a little pottery library

Every printable guide in The Clay Hole University series takes one free lesson and rebuilds it for paper, with workbook pages, a glossary and a quiz with a worked answer key. Each one keeps its number for good, so a guide you buy today is the same guide in the same place next year.

Put any five printable guides in your cart and the cheapest one is on us. Put in nine and the two cheapest are on us. It happens automatically at checkout, no code to remember.

See every printable guide, or every printable we sell on one page.

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Sits next to

Three lessons that pick up where this one leaves off

Each one is free to read online, and the codes in the guide take you straight there.

Questions

Good to know

How is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is not going anywhere. The guide is that teaching rebuilt for paper: a learning dashboard at the front, numbered moves, a log to write in, a one page card, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
What is the difference between scoring and slipping?
Scoring cuts grooves into both faces so the join has something to grip. Slipping brushes clay thinned to about the thickness of heavy cream down into those grooves, so the two pieces can be pressed and blended into one. Slip without scoring gives no grip at all, and scoring without slip leaves nothing to bond.
Does it cover attaching handles?
Yes, as the hardest version of the same nine moves: a small contact patch carrying a lever, with two attachment points that dry at different rates. It also covers slab seams, coils and small applied pieces such as sprigs and feet.
What do I need besides clay?
A needle tool or a serrated rib to score, a soft brush, a wooden modeling tool to blend, a small pot of slip made from the same clay, and a thin coil for the inside corner. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
Can I use any clay?
Use the same clay body for both pieces and for the slip. Different bodies shrink by different amounts, so a join between two of them pulls itself apart. The guide explains why, and how to make slip from your own clay in a few minutes.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. If you can roll a coil or a slab you can do every move in it. What takes practice is the judgment, how wet is wet enough and when a seam is really gone, and the log is there to help you build it.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is set for an ordinary home or office printer on regular US Letter paper, with nothing important near the edges, so normal printer margins cut nothing off.
Does it print in black and white?
Yes. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: the text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The join card and the log are the two worth having by the table. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
How does delivery work?
It is a digital download. The link arrives by email and on the order confirmation page right after checkout, so you can have it printed and beside the table the same evening.
What happens if the guide is updated?
Every edition carries its version number on the last page. When we correct or improve one, the new edition replaces the old one in the shop, and we can send the updated link to anybody who already bought it.
Can I share it?
It is licensed for your own use. Print as many copies for yourself as you like, on as many of your own devices as you like. Please do not pass the file on, upload it or use it with a class or a group without asking us first.

Score both faces, slip both faces, blend until it is gone

Match the wetness, score and slip both faces, press until a bead squeezes out, blend until you cannot find the seam, then dry it slowly. Those moves take a few minutes and decide whether the join is still shut when the piece comes out of the kiln. The guide keeps them in front of you at the table.

Get the guide · $5.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms for printable guides and paper templates

Your copy is yours. The work behind it is not.

These terms cover every printable guide and every paper template from The Clay Hole. In this section, "product" means the guide or template you bought, including its PDF file and everything in it. The rules below apply to both. Paper templates add one permission, in the next section, and nothing else in that section loosens anything here.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the product to your own devices, print copies for your own use, write all over them, spill clay water on them, replace a coffee-damaged copy, and generally use the heck out of what you bought.

What you may not do is distribute the product to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the product, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. That includes passing it on as a photo, scan, screenshot, tracing, printout, or recreation. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

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If you would like to use one of our guides or templates with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

Paper templates: make them, sell what you make

Everything in the section above applies to paper templates in full, including the template file, its patterns, and its design. This section adds one permission, and the credit that goes with it. It is the only exception to the personal-use rule above.

If you buy a paper template, you may use it to make ceramic pieces, and you may sell those pieces, in person or online. That permission belongs to the purchaser, and it covers the ceramic pieces only. It does not cover the template, its patterns, or any copy or version of them, which may not be shared, sold, or passed on in any form.

You may not claim that you created the design. The design of each paper template, including its shapes, proportions, patterns, and layout, was created by Dan Pearce. That stays true no matter how many pieces you make or sell. Do not describe the design as your own, and do not sell it as your own design.

Your final creative choices are yours. The glazes, colors, surface decoration, carving, texture, and any changes you make to the form belong to your finished piece, and you may claim them as your own work. The structural credit for the design stays with Dan Pearce.

Credit is required for pieces sold online. If you sell online a piece made from an Advanced, Expert, Insane, or Legendary template, your listing must credit Dan Pearce as the designer of the template and link to theclayhole.com. For example: Made from a paper template designed by Dan Pearce, https://theclayhole.com. Pieces made from Beginner and Intermediate templates do not need the credit, but you still may not claim the design as your own.

Templates marked NEW

Every paper template starts out marked NEW, as part of the New Pattern Program. NEW means nobody has built that template in clay yet. It does not mean the template is unfinished. Every template is audited at least three times for accuracy and is drawn to work as designed. The NEW mark comes off once someone builds the template and it checks out.

When you buy, claim, or download a template marked NEW, or a bundle, package, or collection that holds one, you accept that it has not been built yet, that you use it at your own discretion, and that you may need to adjust as you build if your project needs it.

A template marked NEW is covered by every one of these terms, exactly like any other template. If you find something indisputably wrong in one, the promise in "Refunds, mistakes, and making it right" below applies.

Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

We work hard to make The Clay Hole University and our paper templates accurate, useful, practical, and ridiculously thorough. But pottery is a hands-on craft involving countless variables that no written guide can completely control or anticipate.

Depending on what you are doing, ceramics may involve extreme heat, kilns, electricity, gas, flame, sharp tools, spinning machinery, heavy equipment, pressurized equipment, silica-containing dust, fumes, chemicals, raw materials, stains, oxides, glazes, combustible materials, hot surfaces, breakable objects, and other hazards capable of causing serious injury, illness, property damage, fire, or worse.

These guides and templates are provided for general educational and informational purposes. They are not a substitute for hands-on training, competent supervision, your studio’s safety procedures, applicable laws or codes, Safety Data Sheets, or the instructions and warnings supplied by the manufacturers of your clay, glaze, chemicals, tools, kilns, equipment, protective gear, or other materials.

Studios, kilns, clay bodies, glazes, firing schedules, electrical systems, ventilation systems, equipment, environmental conditions, application thicknesses, material formulations, and individual techniques vary enormously. Something that works beautifully in one situation may fail spectacularly in another. That is part of pottery. Occasionally, it is a very expensive part of pottery.

You are responsible for determining whether any technique, material, combination, firing schedule, tool, or process described in a guide or template is appropriate and safe for your specific circumstances before using it.

Use appropriate protective equipment. Use adequate ventilation and dust control. Read manufacturer instructions and Safety Data Sheets. Follow your studio’s rules. Obtain qualified instruction when a process or piece of equipment requires it. Test materials and techniques before committing important work to them. If you do not understand how to perform something safely, do not proceed until you do.

Never assume that a ceramic surface, glaze, clay body, firing method, finished vessel, repair, decoration, or other result is food-safe, microwave-safe, dishwasher-safe, oven-safe, structurally sound, chemically stable, or suitable for any particular purpose solely because it appears in or is discussed in one of our guides or templates. Verify suitability independently when it matters.

Ceramics also refuses to sign contracts promising beautiful results. Colors change. Glazes move. Kilns have opinions. Pots crack. Materials interact unexpectedly. Manufacturers reformulate products. Equipment behaves differently. The Clay Hole does not guarantee any particular aesthetic, functional, firing, glazing, structural, or other result.

By choosing to use the information in a guide or template, you accept responsibility for your own materials, equipment, workspace, safety decisions, testing, methods, and results. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Clay Hole and its owners, employees, contributors, and affiliates are not responsible for injury, illness, property damage, lost work, failed projects, kiln or equipment damage, financial loss, or other loss arising from or related to your use of, or reliance upon, the guide or template.

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Refunds, mistakes, and making it right

Except where the law requires otherwise, we do not offer refunds on any paper template or printable guide. Pottery has a hundred different ways to do most things, and every guide and template shows one of them. We put real work into making each one as accurate, thorough, and finished as we can, because we want you to love what you bought. A guide or template that you would have done differently, or a piece that surprises you in the kiln, is pottery being pottery, not a problem with the file.

Mistakes happen, even in work we care about this much. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not responsible for any cost or loss that comes with an error in what we send, whether that is clay, materials, firing costs, or your time.

What we will do is fix it. If you find something that is indisputably wrong in a guide or template (an actual error, not a different way of doing it), contact us and we will correct it within a week and upload the new document so you can download it.

Custom step illustrations from Clayla have one more promise. It is rare for an illustration not to work, but Clayla does not get every drawing right. If you buy one and it misses, text us the illustration and we will be happy to refund it.

Terms version 2026-11-15